By George Skelton, Los Angeles Times
 
You hear this every time there’s a drought or deluge in California: “Why haven’t they built more dams?” Truth is, they’ve built a bunch. And they’re about done with it.

Tally them up. There are more than 1,400 dams in the state. At least 1,000 are major and 55 can hold 100,000 acre-feet or more of water. One acre-foot is enough to supply two average households for a year.

There are 36 reservoirs that can contain at least 200,000 acre-feet. Eleven can hold 1 million or more.

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Less than three weeks after the Placer County Planning Commission approved the Northstar Mountain Master Plan, the Board of Supervisors did the same.

It was a 5-0 vote on Feb. 21.

Components of the plan include:

• New terrain: Includes access to the Sawtooth Range. Approximately 293 acres of new groomable ski trails are proposed with over 700 acres of new skiable terrain, resulting in approximately 3,870 acres of total skiable terrain.
• New lifts: They will be added to reduce congestion in higher-use areas on the mountain and on trails returning to the village.
• Snowmaking advancements: Improving quality of snow surface conditions through additional snowmaking coverage.
• Skier services: Provide additional seating, restrooms and enhanced food service.

By Seth A. Richardson, Reno Gazette-Journal

Activists packed a Nevada state Senate committee room on Monday during a three-hour hearing for the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that yielded a wildly divided perspectives.

The Equal Rights Amendment, commonly known as the ERA, was birthed out of the feminist movement during the late-1960s and early 1970s. It states constitutional rights apply to everyone in the country regardless of sex.

The amendment was nearly ratified, first passing Congress in 1972 but fell three states short of the requisite 38 needed for ratification before the deadline of June 30, 1982, after mostly southern and a few western states voted it down.

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By Reno Gazette-Journal

The South Dayton Retention Pond above east Dayton is expected to fail, according to the National Weather Service’s social media pages.

However, there is no actual dam failure, according to Lyon County.

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A block of Tahoe Keys Boulevard near Venice Drive in South Lake Tahoe is off-limits Feb. 21 because a tree is across the road. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

Roads remain a mess in the greater Lake Tahoe area as another storm system pummels the already saturated mountains.

The main closure is on Mount Rose Highway because a wall of snow, 20-feet deep fell there on Monday. No time has been given when it might reopen. It is closed at the Galena Creek Visitors Center.

“It was ugly up there,” Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Highway 50 in the American River Canyon is washed out near Bridal Veil Falls. Photo/CHP

Along Highway 50 near Bridal Veil Falls the side of the road has collapsed. According to the California Highway Patrol, the No. 2 lane is buckling.

The onramp at Interstate 80 and Highway 89 in Truckee is closed because of flooding.

Highway 89 around Emerald Bay is closed, as is Highway 88 getting to Kirkwood. The Carson Spur is also closed. Caltrans has no estimate when any of them will be open.

Check with Caltrans or NDOT for current road conditions, or click on the state icons on the home page of Lake Tahoe News.

A commuter to Carson City said visibility on Spooner Summit is horrible.

South Lake Tahoe crews will be out Tuesday assessing storm drains and water levels.

“Actually, all is not too bad. The snow level stayed just above the lake so run-off from the mountains wasn’t much at all,” Jim Marino, assistant public works director, told Lake Tahoe News.

Local firefighters have been dealing with downed trees and power lines.

There are widespread power outages on the West Shore. The lower mountain and lodge at Alpine Meadows don’t have electricity. Liberty Utilities crews hope to restore power by noon Tuesday unless further damage occurs.  

Avalanche danger and weather are making damage assessment difficult, according to Liberty. Customers in some locations should plan on multi-day outages.

A large swath of NV Energy customers on the South Shore also have no electricity.

Incline Village schools have decided to have a longer school day and stop early-out Wednesdays in order to make up for all the snow days.

According to the National Weather Service in Reno, 1 to 3 feet of snow could fall above 6,500 between now and Wednesday morning, 3-5 feet above 7,500 feet and torrential rain below 6,500 feet.

Stowe Mountain is considered the premier ski resort on the East Coast. Photo/Stowe Mountain

Vail Resorts today announced it has acquired Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont.

Mt. Mansfield Company, a subsidiary of American International Group, sold the resort for $50 million. It had been under the same ownership since 1949.

This is the first resort on the East Coast that the Broomfield-Colo.-based ski behemoth has purchased.

Vail Resorts is acquiring all of the assets related to the mountain operations of the resort, including base area skier services (food and beverage, retail and rental, lift ticket offices and ski and snowboard school facilities) at Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak. Other facilities such as the Stowe Mountain Lodge, Stowe Mountain Club, Stowe Country Club and certain real estate owned and held for potential future development will be retained by MMC.

Vail expects to retain the majority of employees.

“With the investments in both mountain infrastructure and base area facilities that AIG has made over the years, Stowe Mountain Resort has become the premier, high-end resort for East Coast skiers and snowboarders. We look forward to working with AIG to continue enhancing the guest experience and to ensure the resort’s long-term success,” Rob Katz, chairman and CEO of Vail Resorts, said in a statement.

Stowe Mountain Resort is expected to be part of the Epic Pass for the 2017-18. This gives skiers access to Vail Resorts’ ski areas in California (Heavenly, Kirkwood, Northstar), Colorado, and Utah. Also to be added to the pass next ski season is Whistler, which Vail bought last year.

Stowe is also home to the Trapp Family Lodge. For those familiar with “The Sound of Music,” this is the family who escaped Nazi occupation in Austria. They are the ones who opened this lodge in Vermont, with family members to this day operating it.

By Alexei Koseff, Sacramento Bee

Capping a yearlong assessment of pay equity among its ranks, the California Senate late last year gave 10 percent raises to 71 employees to shrink a lingering gap between what male and female employees earn.

The raises, which total about $602,000 annually, followed the passage of a 2015 law expanding California’s equal-pay protections and a Sacramento Bee investigation that found persistent gender inequities on the Capitol payroll.

Though the new law did not apply to the Legislature, Dan Reeves, chief of staff to Senate leader Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, said the Senate wanted to “show other businesses” that they could pay men and women equally for similar work and still “be successful.”

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Highway 50 near Tahoe Keys Boulevard on the afternoon of Feb. 20. Photo/SLTFD

Holiday travelers and snow = congested, messy roads.

Local roads and Sierra highways are full of people trying to leave Lake Tahoe and Truckee. Traffic is inching along on Monday afternoon.

Highway 50 through the American River Canyon has been closed intermittently for avalanche control

Highway 89 around Emerald Bay is closed.

Alpine Meadows Road has been closed part of Monday for avalanche control.

Check the Caltrans and NDOT websites for current conditions, or click on the state icons on the home page of Lake Tahoe News.

A flood watch is in effect through Tuesday morning for the Reno-Carson-City-Minden areas.

Snow is in the forecast for Tahoe through Thursday.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

On a split vote last week, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors said no to the 605-house Dixon Ranch subdivision.

Only Supervisors Sue Novasel and Brian Veerkamp were in favor to the El Dorado Hills development. They would have liked the project to be revised, while the others were completely against the project.

This 280-acre development off Green Valley Road has been a contentious issue on the West Slope for at least four years.

Opponents who filled the meeting room on Feb. 14 were most vocal about traffic and safety. Roads in the county are already clogged; more housing would exacerbate the issue. The county can’t maintain the roads it has, so adding more pavement would compound that problem.

Plus, Sue Taylor with Save Our County questioned if traffic from the project would violate voter approved measures Y and E.

CAO Don Ashton also had reservations about the plan, citing the financial agreement as being less than iron clad. Traffic mitigation fees were going to be reduced.

Supervisor John Hidahl said the county should be looking at affordable housing to help the residents who live here now, and not be approving projects that worsen county conditions.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report

Sierra-at-Tahoe and other area ski resorts could be impacted if fewer tourists come to the United States. Photo Copyright 2017 Carolyn E. Wright

By Christopher Muther, Boston Globe

 President Trump’s travel ban targeting nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries may not have held up in court, but it appears quite successful at keeping plenty of other people out of the United States.

Trump’s order brought with it a swift decline in the number of worldwide tourists and travelers looking to visit the United States, say people in the tourism industry. Some say it could be as damaging to the U.S. tourism sector as the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Online booking websites reported that flight searches from international points of origin to the United States were down anywhere from 6 percent to 17 percent since Trump signed the executive order on Jan. 27. But experts say what’s more alarming is the icy message it sends to the world.

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